


Mary Morstan and 'The Yellow Face'

by eveningsoother (WhichWolfWins)



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Infidelity, Meta, Story: The Adventure of the Yellow Face, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The original stories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-01
Updated: 2014-03-01
Packaged: 2018-01-14 03:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1251079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhichWolfWins/pseuds/eveningsoother
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After reading 'The Yellow Face', I couldn't help but connect it to Mary's storyline.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mary Morstan and 'The Yellow Face'

I’ve been re-reading the original stories and I just realized how much Mary’s story line follows that of Effie Munro’s in ‘The Yellow Face’. I recommend you read the story first, rather than my clumsy layout of it.

For those of you who haven’t read it or don’t remember, Grant Munro, Effie’s husband, goes to Sherlock asking for help with a mystery revolving around his wife. Effie’s been acting rather strange. She asks to have 100 pounds without explanation, she sneaks out of the house during the night, and he catches her coming out of a newly-purchased cottage near their home. His curiosity was originally raised by a sighting of a scary face in the window of the cottage. He tries to meet his new neighbors, but they turn him away, so it’s strange to him that his wife goes in and out of the place. He tries to get her to tell him what she was doing there and who is in the cottage, but she doesn’t answer, so he threatens to go to the cottage to find out. Her response is very similar to Mary’s in ‘His Last Vow’.

> "No, no, Jack! For God’s sake! I implore you not to do this, Jack. I swear that I will tell you everything some day, but nothing but misery can come of it if you enter that cottage. Trust me, Jack! Trust me only this once. You will never have cause to regret it. You know that I would not have a secret from you if it were not for your own sake. Our whole lives are at stake in this. If you come home with me all will be well. If you force your way into that cottage it, all is over between us."

This is the part of Mary’s story we’ve already seen. Like John, Effie’s husband decides not to find out what’s going on.

> "I will trust you on one condition, and one condition only. It is that this mystery comes to an end from now. You are at liberty to preserve your secret, but you must promise me that there shall be no more nightly visits, no more doings which are kept from my knowledge. I am willing to forget those that which are past if you will promise that there shall be no more in the future."

Grant doesn’t go to the cottage, trusting that his wife won’t return to the cottage, but two days later she does just that while he’s at work. Returning early, he catches the maid trying to warn his wife he’s home and he charges toward the cottage, but he finds that the inhabitants are currently gone. Strangely, he finds a photograph of his wife in one of the bedrooms.

Here’s where I believe Mary’s story may be going.

> "I am sorry that I broke my promise, Jack, but if you knew all the circumstances I am sure that you would forgive me."
> 
> "Until you tell me who it is that you have given that photograph, there can never be any confidence between us."

This is one of the cases where Sherlock gets the answer wrong. He believes that it is Effie’s ex-husband, John Hebron, who she claimed to be dead who’s staying at the cottage. The truth, they find, is that Effie isn’t concealing her husband in the cottage but rather her ill daughter.

> "It was you who told me first that the cottage was occupied. I should have waited for the morning, but I could not sleep for excitement, and so at last I slipped out, knowing how difficult it is to wake you. But you saw me go and that was the beginning of my troubles. Next day you had my secret at your mercy, but you nobly refrained from pursuing your advantage. Three days later, however, the nurse and the child only just escaped from the back door as you rushed in at the front one. And now tonight you at last know all, and I ask you what is to become of us, my child, and me?"

For Effie, it turns out that her husband is a better man than she thought he would be in such a situation and he lovingly takes the girl into their home. Here’s where I think the story may go a bit differently for John and Mary. Going by Mary’s reaction in ‘The Sign of Three’, it’s very possible that she’s hiding another child from John, another husband, or perhaps both!

Also, we got a glimpse of the yellow mask Effie’s daughter wore in the story in the shoe box Lestrade brought to John in ‘Many Happy Returns’.

**Author's Note:**

> [Here's](http://whichwolfwins.tumblr.com/post/74374538453/mary-morstan-and-the-yellow-face) where you can reblog this and/or follow me! :)
> 
> Thoughts?


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